Vegas 2012

Oh, Vegas. You never disappoint. You're always up and ready for anything. The slowest time of the day is 8AM-10AM, believe it or not. None of the shops are open, other than the 24 hour Starbucks that are everywhere you look. Mind you, you can pretty much get anything, anytime anywhere. It really is the city that never sleeps.

So this was our third trip to Vegas. We first went in 2008 with a bunch of people, stayed at the MGM Grand and it was a TON of fun. Then we went last year, and decided to go on an early 5th anniversary trip this last week...because this summer we'll be wanting to spend our vacation with Braden!

We stayed at Treasure Island again, and it didn't disappoint. I'm not totally up to snuff on my Vegas history, but I think it's one of the older hotels. They have definitely upgraded and remodeled, but we love it most for it's location. Pretty central on the strip, close to both north and south bus stops, Fashion Show Mall is right next door, and our favorite place to buy show tickets, Tix 4 Tonight. Seriously, unless you're going to Vegas and need to see a certain show or act, or a big show like Garth Brooks or Celine Dion, buy your tickets when they're there. It's so worth the savings! We've gotten in to see every show we've wanted to, except this time - Terry Fator. He was sold out, so next time we'll know!


We didn't see a show the first night, but the second night we went to Cirque du Soleil Ka at the MGM. It had it's slow parts, but overall it was flippin' amazing! The stage itself is unreal. For those Bachelor Pad fans out there, this was one of the challenges they had last year - remember them being on the harnesses and essentially walking straight up a stage? Yup, it's that one!

The second night we went to the show Absinthe. It was at Caesar's Palace - which is STUNNING! The show itself...I don't recommend. The chairs were awful, you had to be in the venue and wait 1/2 hour for the show to start, general admission...the acts were pretty good, ranging from tumblers to tight rope walkers, but the comedy was extremely vulgar. I'm no prude, but it was pretty out there.

We shopped. Did the north outlet mall, which is the only outlet place we go. Not a lot of luck for me, but I got some birthday gifts for my nieces and some stuff for Braden from the Disney Store. He LOVES his new Cars toys, hasn't let them out of his sight since. I did Fashion Show Mall by myself (bliss) while Jay played black jack, and they have the biggest Forever 21 I've ever seen. In a store that size, last year I had about 8 shirts I wanted to get but narrowed it down to 5. This year? NOTHING. Such bad luck.

But, then came Nordstrom! How I love your American department stores! They have 5 major department stores in Fashion Show Mall. CRAZY! I found me some Toms. Some CHEAP Toms. So I got 2 pairs for me and 1 pair for Braden!

We highly recommend dinner, or probably any meal, at Sugar Factory. It's not all candy, though they have a LOT of it, but the meal selection was phenomenal. Plus, if you can get out on the patio, this is your view:

And then this is the inside...

 We really like going in and touring the different hotels and casinos. How "Sex & The City" is The Cosmopolitan? It is perfectly pink & sparkly!


Our one and only picture. No one can take pictures with my DSLR except me - I swear! It angers me so much!

I sure enjoyed the opportunity to get dressed up a bit! The first top and dress are from F21 and the last top is from Smart Set.

And I close with...who doesn't love the strip at night? It's just so amazing! (My fave pic from this trip):







Okay, question for my photographer friends:

How do you take a picture of PEOPLE at night?

I have tried all the settings I can think of and the flash just ends up washing out faces. I've turned the flash exposure as low as it can go. Is the only thing that can save me an external flash/speedlite? (I shoot with a Canon Rebel Xti) Thanks in advance!

And just a little WestJet humor on our flight home. Generally, we love flying WestJet!

Happy (Early) 5th Anniversary to Us!

We have been married just over 4.5 years now. I always had it in my head that we'd do a 5th anniversary trip somewhere. I had an even better idea that it'd be super cool to celebrate our 5th anniversary and Ben & Jess' 1st anniversary as our anniversaries are 5 days apart in July. Then Jess had to go get all knocked up and the trip probably wouldn't be as fun with a 3 month old baby! However, I'm super excited to meet said niece in about 6 weeks or so, so Jay and I decided to book our trip to go...next month! We figure we'll go before seeding starts, and we can use our summer vacation time to go to BC with Braden. Plus, since we already went to Maui...we just wanted a short 3 day trip somewhere. Now where's the perfect place to go for 3 nights?

Yup! This will be our 3rd trip. I'd really love to go to some other US cities like San Francisco or New Orleans...but anywhere else we'd want to make it a longer trip. We got an AMAZING deal from WestJet and Mom was excited to have Braden all to herself again. We decided to stay at Treasure Island again. We really liked it last time, mostly for it's location on the strip.

So we're going March 20-23 and we're really excited! It's always a really healthy thing for our relationship any time we can get to spend with each other sans Braden. A healthy marriage is the key to a happy family, in my opinion! It's always nice to have the opportunity to reconnect!

Maui: Honus & Sunsets

I love sea turtles. They're called honu, in Hawaii. It just so happens that the honu often appear floating around at the rocks by the condo, and they even appear on the beach sun bathing too, but I didn't get to see that. One day I went down to the rocks to take pictures of the honu...here's what I got. Do you see them?


They sure blend in with the rocks, don't they?

I would wait with my hand on my shutter button (is that even the proper term!?) for what seemed like 5 minutes in order to catch them coming up to take a breath!

Here's a view a little farther back from where I was:

Looking back at the condo:

Snorkellers swimming with the honu:

This guy got washed up on a rock!

But don't worry...the next wave saved him!

And my favorite picture...

So this concludes my Maui posts! I hope you've enjoyed reading them! I sure enjoyed being there and taking the pictures! Enjoy some sunsets, why don't you?

Maui: Outings With a Toddler

So we took Braden on the Sugar Cane Train. We did 2 more outings with him that we thought a toddler would do well with. First, we went to the Maui Ocean Centre. Braden really liked it at first...but then it got a little busy for him and we had a near low blood sugar meltdown, but Papa saved the day.

The shark tank was REALLY cool! Braden's favorite part for sure!




Sorry, Maui Ocean Centre, but I think your admission prices are ridiculous...and we won't be going back unless our kids are older and specifically ask! Pretty much the only reason we went was because we were mislead by the rental car company that we had free admission...really it was free GIFT from the gift shop with admission purchase!

Then we went whale watching with Braden! Once he figured out that he couldn't get off the boat...he had a nice time. He sat down in the harbour when he legally had to, and overall it went very well! He couldn't really see the whales, but he just liked being on the boat! I love the Banyan tree in Lahaina!








I didn't catch a whale breaching...I got fins and one decent whale tale. But it's hard chasing a 2 year old around a boat!

One of our only family photos in Maui...sigh!